THE HAGUE–The three Dutch Caribbean countries voted against the Kingdom Law proposal to establish a Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom, during last week’s meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers.

Curaçao Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath confirmed this to the media on Monday. The governments of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, represented by their Ministers Plenipotentiary, made objections to the law proposal. The law proposal was nonetheless approved because the three ministers plenipotentiary are a minority in the Kingdom Council of Ministers.

Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops said after Friday’s meeting that the law proposal in question was largely in line with the requirements of the Dutch Caribbean countries.

However, Rhuggenaath said the Curaçao government had asked to have the law proposal handled in the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom IPKO which takes place in St. Maarten in January 2019, to create sufficient support among the different parliaments.

Still, Rhuggenaath is content that at least there is a law proposal on the table and that Knops kept to his word that there would be a law proposal before the end of the year.

“What is being presented now is progress compared to the previous law proposal. But we were still of the opinion that it should have been kept back until the IPKO,” Rhuggenaath said.

According to Curaçao, the current law proposal under which conflicts of a legal nature within the Kingdom can be handled, was the start of a solid dispute regulation which in the future might require adaptation. The intention is to evaluate the Kingdom law five years after its introduction.